


Whisper Trapped Inside A Tornado

by Mogatrat



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternative Universe - Dark Fantasy, Background Bumbleby, F/F, Gen, Golem!Penny, Non-Consensual Mind-Reading, Nuts and Dolts Week (RWBY), Trans!Penny, Trans!Ruby, as background elements, cameos of life is strange characters, rated m for blood and gore and guts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:47:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23561020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mogatrat/pseuds/Mogatrat
Summary: The elemental sorcerer team Rose Squad has been on rest for months since their geomancer, Blake, was captured by the warlock Adam Taurus. Inspired by the incident, the Spellweaver Pietro Polendina creates a new spell, making a pact with two gods to give life to a golem. While the new protector is assigned to Rose Squad, something stirs in the hollow bones of a dead god in the south, waiting for their arrival...
Relationships: Penny Polendina/Ruby Rose
Comments: 7
Kudos: 20





	Whisper Trapped Inside A Tornado

**Author's Note:**

> For Nuts & Dolts Week prompt #5, AU! Functions as a part of my Warded Witchdom series.
> 
> Currently de-listed from the main series because I'm currently writing everything that leads up to these events and canon is likely to change!

Pietro was sweating.

Behind him stood two of the most important women in the Witchdom. The Magister, clad in a smart white suit and tie, short blonde hair elegantly swept across her forehead, hands clasped behind her back as she studied his work. The Guardian, blue hair cropped close to her scalp, muscled arms bare to display the mark of the Progenitor on her shoulder, hands on her hips, waiting for something to go wrong.

And in front of him, a ritual circle studded with jewels, surrounding a clay statue he had spent weeks molding to perfection. He was certain any soul would be thrilled to inhabit such a form, gods willing. The Guardian clicked her tongue.

"Well, Vic?" she asked, turning to the Magister. "All look good to you?"

"His runic form is excellent." Victoria walked around the edges of the circle. "I think they’ll be pleased with the offerings... they’d better be, at any rate, my coven donated most of these jewels."

"Isn't it technically Glynda's coven now?" the Guardian asked with a smirk.

"Details." Victoria stopped her circling next to Pietro. "This is an ambitious spell. I don't think any shaper has worked with the Progenitor since they were reborn, no?"

"And that," the Guardian said, pointing to the symbol etched into her arm, "Was a real long time ago. I was a teenager when I got this."

“As if you’re not still a teenager, Chloe?” Victoria said with a smirk.

“Only in my heart, Vic, kids give you stress lines,” Chloe sighed. “How long have you been working on this?”

“Since the renewed warlock attacks at the borders, but...I’ve been hearing the Progenitor for years,” Peitro admitted. “They were confused, at first, but over time they’ve become more of a singular voice, and they’ve been communing with the other gods. They claim their magic can withstand corruption in a way the other gods can’t, not even Fortan.”

“So you’re saying if he steps on a punisher fairy he won’t just drop down dead?” Chloe asked. “That’d be nice. The Taurus clan started weaponizing the little bastards.”

“That’s the report that gave me the idea, yes,” Pietro confirmed. “We need guardians who can protect our sorcerers if their charms are lost or destroyed in the battlefield, and virtually every other god I contacted said that any construct I made would still be vulnerable to warlock attack. Not them.”

“Got a name for him yet?” Chloe asked, leaning against the wall.

“Percival, but I don’t know if he’ll take to it. The deal the Progenitor struck with Tria...well, you know how gods are,” Pietro said, looking at Victoria.

“Fate’s _still_ mad at my wife,” Victoria said with a chuckle. “Are you ready to perform the ritual?”

“Yes. I simply wished to have the protection and approval of the greatest witch and sorcerer in the kingdom before I went about...well, creating new life.” Pietro rubbed the back of his neck. “Magical prosthesis is one thing, but this is...well. I’m sure you understand the gravity of the situation.”

“Yeah, I’ll be here in case he goes all abomination of nature on you. Remember, back when they were four gods the Progenitor’s war corrupted the whole world,” Chloe pointed out. “They better actually be trying to make it right.”

“We’ll see, won’t we?” Pietro said with a nervous chuckle. “Very well. Stand back.” 

The two women backed off, the air crackling around Chloe, magic vibrating so strongly in the air that even Pietro could feel it vibrating the charged particles in his wooden legs. He gulped and stepped forward, closing his eyes, and reached out to the heavens.

The Progenitor didn’t speak the language of the gods as he knew it. Though the language always shifted, as all shapers knew, the Progenitor always spoke in at least two voices at once, and though he could understand it, it felt like reading a hundred year old book. Such an ancient presence, and such power. Repeating their syllables aloud felt heavy as he knelt before the circle, touching two fingers to the first diamond on the outer edge. 

The spell took effect immediately. The diamond popped beneath his hand, and the rest of the jewels followed along the runic lines, spraying glittering particles into the air that floated above the circle, waiting to move. As Pietro moved into the second stanza, they flew into the clay man at the center and settled all along his outer surface, creating a brilliant rainbow of color that started to shift and move.

Pietro took a breath and listened deeply to the voice of the gods, knowing that this would make it or break it. He poured his soul into the repetition, and felt the power he’d built up from spellcasting for ten years leave his body, like the air was being drained from his lungs.

The crust of minerals on the outside of the figure shifted colors once again, and it became skin, lips, eyes — even hair, a bright orange, gathered into being atop his head. The last word of the spell left Pietro’s lips, and as he looked up, his creation, his golem, got to its feet and blinked. There was a flash of light, a sound of sizzling, and he lifted his arm to peer quizzically at his shoulder as a familiar rune formed in his skin — one fourth of the Progenitor’s true name.

“An aeromancer, nice,” Chloe said approvingly, raising her eyebrows. “How you feeling, bud?”

Pietro stood and cleared his throat. “Yes, Percival, how are you feeling? Do you know me?”

Percival blinked a few times, then looked down at his body.

“Can I be a girl?”

Pietro coughed. “I, uh, oh, I’m sorr—”

“Hell yes you can!” Chloe shouted, stepping forward. “One second, Pietro.” She held out her arms and closed her eyes, fingers moving in imperceptible twitches in the air, and Percival’s body began to shift, one prong of Chloe’s sorcerer’s sign lighting up with the effort — Kit’s rune, titan of earth. Pietro’s mouth dropped open as the body of the golem changed form before his eyes, just slightly, a widening of hips, slimming of shoulders, the slight swell of breasts on her chest. 

“That good?” Chloe asked, putting her arms down and opening her eyes. 

“Excellent!” the golem cried, looking down at her body and clutching her hands together. “Well done, Miss!”

“Shoulda had a geomancer make your statue first,” Chloe said, cocking a smirk at Pietro. “We do it way faster.”

Pietro coughed. “Well, then...what would you like your name to be?”

“What is yours?” the golem inquired. “Are you...my father?”

“I...suppose I am, yes,” Pietro said. “My name is Pietro Polendina.”

“Then I am Penny Polendina. Salutations!” Penny looked back and forth. “Do you have clothes for me? I don’t need them, I am not cold, but I see everyone is wearing them, and I think I would like some.”

“I like her already,” Chloe said, nudging Pietro’s shoulders. “I know just the squad to stick her with.”

“You _wouldn’t,_ ” Victoria said, aghast. “Not now!”

“I would. Trust me, Vic, I’ve been running the Core for a couple years now. They’ll love her.”

“Am I going somewhere?” Penny asked.

Pietro cleared his throat. “Yes, Penny. You’re going to be humanity’s defender.”

* * *

Ruby paced the space between the bunk beds in the barracks, gusts blowing out from her feet as she walked. 

“If you keep doing that you’re gonna send all my papers flying again,” Weiss warned, holding her notes down to her bed with her hands, glaring at her. “Calm down.”

“I am calm!” Ruby insisted, whirling to face her, her cape whipping Yang in the face and knocking her over as she turned.

“Yeah, seems like it,” Yang grumbled, pulling on the cape and forcing Ruby to sit down beside her. “We don’t even need a new teammate. We’re fine as a trio.”

“How could you say that?” Ruby demanded, turning to look at her. Yang just stared down at her lap, her hands clenched tight on her knees. The yellow ceramic one that the druid shaper had given her confronted Ruby, and she turned away. 

“I just think we’ll be fine on our own,” Yang murmured. “I don’t see why we can’t clear out monsters from the Wilds with three people instead of four.”

“They said the new girl will be special. What does that mean?” Ruby asked, looking to Weiss like she’d have the answers, since usually she knew _something._ “I mean, I’m calm, obviously, but I’m just _wondering._ ”

“I don’t know,” Weiss answered. “Maybe she’s one of the two-pronged sorcerers that have been popping up lately, like Pyrrha? That’d be a big advantage for us.”

Ruby’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, that’d be amazing! Imagine the kind of combinations she could make!”

“We can make combos fine with just us,” Yang grumbled.

Ruby deflated, looking at her sister again. “I mean...yeah, but...Yang, she’s—”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“We’ll get her back,” Ruby continued forcibly. “And we’ll just have a five-person squad, instead.”

“That wouldn’t work,” Weiss objected. “Four elements, four members, that’s the way it’s assigned.”

“Well then what if she’s a double-prong?” Ruby argued. 

“I’m sure earth is one of her elements, if she’s even—”

A knock came at the door, and the whole team stiffened up. “Come in,” Ruby called after a moment of silence. The door opened, and a woman with dark blue hair tied in a neat braid walked in, hands behind her back. 

“Commander Price-Marsh!” Ruby exclaimed, getting to her feet and standing at attention.

“At ease, Rose,” Price-Marsh, said, holding up a hand. “I’m here to introduce you to your new squad member. As I’m sure you’ve been told, she’s rather unique. I’ll let her father explain.” She stood aside and beckoned to someone in the hall, and in walked a familiar face.

“Spellweaver Polendina!” Yang said, straightening up. “What are you doing here? Wait...you have a kid?”

“Miss Xiao Long,” Polendina said with a slight bow. He caught sight of Yang’s magical arm and raised an eyebrow. “You painted it.”

“It’s part of her healing process,” Ruby said in a stage whisper. Yang elbowed her.

“Ignore her,” Yang said with a slight smile and a roll of her eyes. “What’s going on?”

“Well...I shaped a new spell. It’s been in development for a long time, and I haven’t crafted an entirely new one for many years, but I’m very proud of my work. I think you ought to know who and what your new squadmate is, so that you can use her to her best advantage.” Pietro adjusted his glasses. “She’s been in solitary training for a week now, and she picks up on core concepts very quickly, because...she is a golem, created for the purpose of aiding the Primal Core.”

“A golem?” Weiss gasped. “But...no one’s ever been able to make one! They’re purely theoretical!”

“Indeed, Miss Schnee, but no other shaper has worked directly with the Progenitor since their departure from their old bodies. I have.”

Weiss’ eyes shone in a way that Ruby had never seen before. “Can I go over your spellbooks? I want to—”

“We’re getting off the subject,” Price-Marsh interrupted. “Please.”

“Ah, yes!” Pietro perked up. “Let me introduce you to Penny Polendina. Penny, you can come in now.”

He stepped aside, and a girl clad in a green and brown dress stepped forward, the shoulders bare as was the fashion for sorcerers. “Salutations!” Penny offered with a wave and a smile. “It is nice to meet all of you.” Ruby’s eyes were immediately drawn to her sign.

“You’re an aeromancer!” she said. “But, I’m an aeromancer? Why do we need another one?”

“Because my mother hates me,” Price-Marsh said dryly.

“She does not,” Pietro insisted. “The Guardian asked that she be assigned to your unit due to your...recent encounter with the Taurus clan. She acts as a mobile charm, preventing the onset of corruption to those under her protection. So…”

“So if he hits us with the punisher fairies again, we’ll be ready,” Yang growled under her breath. “...good plan, Shaper.”

“But you’re _not_ going anywhere near Taurus clan territory,” Price-Marsh insisted. “Your squad is not prepared for another warlock encounter. She will be training in team combat with you against the creatures of the Wilds in the south, where you’ll be helping to clear the way for Witchdom expansion.”

“What? No. We have the right to go against that bastard again,” Yang insisted, her shoulders squaring. “After what he did to me and Blake—”

“Your squad is down a geomancer and you’ve been deeply affected by the loss,” Price-Marsh said harshly. “Believe me, the fight against Taurus is far from over — I’ll be leading the charge myself for what they did to my soldiers. But that war is weeks away, gods willing. What happened to you was nothing more than a tragic accident, stumbling into territory we didn’t know was theirs. I regret the error, but you have no right to revenge.”

“How can you stand there and act so high-and-mighty when _you_ sent us there in the first place—” Yang began, smoke starting to pour from her palms, until Price-Marsh threw out a hand and a glob of water formed over Yang’s head, soaking her as it landed.

“You will show proper control of your magic when in the barracks,” Price-Marsh snapped. “And my orders stand. Please, acquaint yourself with your new teammate. Report to the Southrest pad tomorrow morning for your briefing and equipment. Good day. Polendina, I must speak with you privately.”

“O-of course, ma’am,” Pietro said, following Price-Marsh out of the door. “Good luck, Penny!”

As the door closed behind them, there was a moment of silence while Penny looked to each of the other girls in turn, her eyes narrowing. “I’m Penny!” she said, sticking out a hand to no one in particular. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all!”

Ruby jumped up first, taking Penny’s hand and giving it a firm shake. “I’m Ruby Rose, and this is Weiss Schnee,” she said, pointing, “And there is Yang Xiao Long, my sister.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all!” Penny said again, bouncing on her heels. Yang and Weiss exchanged a tired look, which Ruby caught out of the corner of her eye and scowled at. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Penny. Why don’t you sit down and we can talk for a little bit?” Ruby suggested, taking her seat next to Yang again. Penny sat down right where she was, looking up at Ruby expectantly. Ruby giggled, and Penny cocked her head curiously.

“What’s funny?”

“You,” Ruby said, smiling. “You can take a seat next to Wei—”

“No she can’t,” Weiss said, guarding her notes jealously. “I can barely sit here.”

“Well, we have chairs over by the desks, you could grab one of those,” Ruby suggested.

“I am comfortable here, Ruby Rose,” Penny said, leaning back on her hands. “I’m sure you have many questions for me! Commander Price-Marsh talked to me for a really long time when we first met.”

“Well...yes, I do, but I thought it’d be rude if I just started asking,” Ruby said, rubbing the back of her neck.

“You learned tact? Without me looking? That’s a shock,” Weiss remarked, smiling at Ruby.

“You’re one to talk,” Ruby shot back. 

“Girls, girls, we’ve all matured as people or whatever,” Yang said with a sigh. “So, Penny, you’re a golem, right? For real?”

“I am,” Penny confirmed. “I was created a month ago. Can you believe that my father thought I would be a man? The Guardian helped me reshape my body.”

Ruby’s eyes sparkled. “Really? Me too!”

“Oh?”

“Yeah! Back when the Magister was just a coven leader, she helped perform a transition spell on me. The Guardian was part of the ritual at the time! Fist bump, Penny!” 

Penny gasped, jumping to her feet and carefully studying Ruby’s extended fist before slamming her own against it. Ruby grit her teeth.

“So, uh...that sure feels like stone!” she said, shaking her hand off as Penny resumed sitting, this time closer to the bed. “But you look just like a regular girl.”

“Since I have been given a soul by Tria, I want to at least appear human...at least that’s what father says. He made sure to work it into the ritual that I can change my outer appearance to whatever I want it to be.”

“And you chose to be a redhead, huh? Good choices, sister,” Ruby said. “My hair’s magic too, but that was passed down from my mom.”

“It’s very pretty!”

“You think so?” Ruby ran a hand down her hair, rubbing the red highlights at the ends. 

“By the gods, there’s two of them,” Weiss groaned.

“Right?” Yang said with a laugh. She stood up and stretched. “Hey, why don’t we get down to the mess? You two can keep complimenting each other on the way, promise.”

“Oh,” Penny said, looking down at her lap. “I’ve discovered that I cannot eat. Well, I can, but then I have to cough it back up later and _nobody_ liked that.”

“You can still hang out with us! We’re a team now,” Ruby said firmly. “C’mon, Penny. If I can handle crowds, so can you.”

Penny got to her feet with the rest of the team. “We’re gonna be a total tornado on the battlefield,” she promised. “You just wait. But for now, let’s relax!”

“Very well. Lead on, Ruby Rose!” Penny said, following close behind Ruby as they left their room. They emerged into the barracks hallways, and as Ruby led Penny towards the exit of the building, she looked around eagerly. 

“Where are the other sorcerers?” Penny asked. “I noticed that the Primal Core seems emptier than I imagined.

“Well, we’re out of the cadet’s barracks,” Yang told her. “We’ve been a team for three years, so when we’re here, we stay in squad bunks. And all the active squads are, like, everywhere right now. I think we’ve got expansions in the north, south and east still actively working. ‘Primal Core’ is almost a misnomer now.”

“So why are you here, then?” Penny inquired as they exited onto the main Core campus. Yang sucked in air through her teeth.

“We, uhm...we were taken off duty for a while,” Ruby supplied, pointing out the mess hall in the distance with her free hand. “I don’t know how much of that you caught back there…”

“I did not wish to make up a history from the small pieces I heard,” Penny said. “The Guardian said I had to stop jumping to conclusions like that.”

“Did you really train personally with the Guardian?” Ruby asked eagerly. “Is she as amazing as they say?”

“I rarely required her help, but...she definitely taught me quite a bit about the use of aeromancy as an offensive art. She’s very...creative,” Penny said. “The Magister also visited me frequently.”

“The Magister?” Weiss piped up, jumping up from the back of the group to walk beside Penny. “Really? Did you get a look at her spellbooks?”

“I’m afraid not,” Penny admitted. “I was very busy during my first month of life!”

“How are you only a month old? What sort of ritual made you?” Weiss asked, looking over Penny more closely now. “You’re so...smart. You’re speaking, and walking on your own…”

“I was told that the Progenitor and the Goddess of Death made a deal for the ritual that created me,” Penny answered. “My soul was taken from the edge of rebirth, so I retained a fair amount of my old knowledge, without memory. There are holes, mostly about dealing with people.”

“That is so cool,” Weiss sighed. “I wish I was a shaper. At least all this time off-duty has been good for brushing up on new witchcraft techniques.”

“I don’t get why you’re still doing that stuff,” Yang said. “It’s not like you’re ever gonna retire and do it full-time, you’ll die young just like the rest of us.”

“Wow, cheery thought, Yang,” Ruby said with a scowl in her sister’s direction.

“Sorry, witchcraft is just mega boring to me when I can shoot fire from my hands,” Yang said with a shrug. “Besides, Weiss won’t give up fighting. She likes it too much.”

“It’s important work! But I _do_ hope to live long enough that I’m not worth sending into the Wilds anymore, thank you very much,” Weiss said, putting her hands on her hips. 

“Oh, Weiss, always with the lofty aspirations.” Yang stuck her tongue out at Weiss as she opened the door to the mess, walking up to the cafeteria line and carefully avoiding eye contact with any of the cadets eating right now. 

As they got their food, Ruby found herself explaining how the whole place worked to Penny — the supply chains that got the Core their untainted food, the vegetarian options for druidic sorcerers who joined (rare as they were, though she did find herself explaining that her friend Ren was one such person, and a great fighter at that), even the way that standing in line worked, as Penny had never been in a place with so many people before. As they sat down to eat, Penny watched them for a moment, her hands drumming on the table.

“Is it all right if I ask what happened?” she asked carefully. “To cause your return to the Core.”

“Yang?” Ruby asked gently, touching her sister’s ceramic arm. 

Yang gulped. “Yeah. It’s fine. Don’t expect me to tell the whole thing, though, I’m eating here.”

“It was a routine clear-out operation,” Ruby began, picking at her food with a fork. “We didn’t expect anything special. We were warned about warlocks, of course, but in the three years we fought together we never saw any. They always packed up their tribes and moved away whenever we started coming close. We were up north, in the Sunless Forest. Us, and Blake.”

“Blake?” Penny asked, cocking her head.

“Yeah. Blake. Our geomancer.” Ruby felt her stomach drop. “We split into pairs, like we usually do, to flush out a den of vampires. They’d dug underground, and they were in a tunnel system, so we had to spread out pretty far to find them all. All four of us were fighting on our own when the werewolves started coming in.”

“We tried to meet back up on the surface, that’d been our plan. But we were all separated when we got up there, came out of different tunnels. And as soon as we got above ground, someone threw punisher fairies at us — they were in these little jars that just exploded as soon as they hit us.”

“Punisher fairies,” Penny repeated, looking down at the table. “My father told me of them. A newer Wilds species, he said. They used to be rare, but…”

“The Wilds found a way to fight back against us. You kill one, it explodes and dispels protective magic — wards, charms, anything that holds corruption at bay. That made the wolves more aggressive, because they weren’t being burned by our charms anymore,” Weiss explained. “We know to avoid them, but this was the first time they’d been actively used against us. We...weren’t ready.”

“I heard Blake screaming,” Yang said, startling the others at the table. “I’d never heard her like that before. That...fear in her voice. She called out for me. When I finally managed to fight my way to her, I saw him. Adam, leader of the Taurus warlock clan.” She shuddered. “He had this...sword. Long, curved, made of titan bone. He had it buried in her gut. When he saw me, he took it out and pointed it at me, and the wolves broke off and swarmed.”

“Yang,” Ruby whispered, taking her hand. “You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”

Yang sighed and looked down, and after a moment of pause, Ruby continued. “We heard them too, and we followed the wolves. Adam tried to get away, he was picking Blake up and throwing her over his shoulder, and then Yang broke free and charged him, and...he took her arm off. One slice.”

“Like it was nothing,” Yang murmured.

“He got away,” Ruby said. “We were lucky Arc Squad was sent to check on us. Me and Weiss held the line for an hour while the wolves and other Wilds creatures sought us out. With one of us knocked out and none of us charmed, they thought we’d be easy prey.”

“We took a lot of hits,” Weiss said, rubbing at her arm. “The corruption hit us all pretty hard. By the time we got back to the Core, we were all changing. My hair turned to moss, Ruby grew fangs and pointed ears, and Yang had a lot of scales. We couldn’t go back on duty until we recovered inside the wards.”

“Are you all well now?” Penny asked, looking from each girl to the next. “You don’t look corrupted.”

“Yeah. We’re okay. Your father, he made a spell to give people magical limbs, so he helped out Yang,” Ruby explained. “It took her a while to take it, but we’ve been training again for a few weeks.”

“It’s pretty impressive,” Yang admitted, holding up the arm in question. “My magic runs through it like nothing’s different. Hits hard, too, even without fire. Must be like you, huh?”

Penny nodded. “I suspect my body works much the way yours does.”

“We haven’t seen or heard anything about Blake since then,” Ruby said. “It...hit us all pretty hard. We don’t even know why he took her.”

“All I know is, the next time I see that bastard, I’m killing him,” Yang growled. “I won’t let him hit me like that again.”

“I am so sorry,” Penny said, her body slumping in her seat. “I don’t mean to...to take anyone’s place.”

“Not your fault,” Yang said. “Nobody could replace Blake, and it’s not your decision where you get assigned, right?”

“I was just told I would go where I was needed,” Penny admitted. “The Guardian seemed sure of her decision.”

“Well, we’ll prove her right,” Ruby affirmed, putting a hand on Penny’s shoulder. “We’ll make a great team. Rose Squad never backs down from a challenge.”

“Gods, I’m glad you’re in charge of this outfit,” Yang said with a little laugh. “I don’t know how you do this, sis, but Price-Marsh really picked you right.”

“Oh, I’m just — you know, I still think she was just, doing a favor to Mom, you know—”

“Ruby, take the compliment or I’ll hit you with my scary arm,” Yang warned, raising her ceramic fist. “You’re doing good. I’ll be fine, I promise. It’ll be good to do something again.”

“I hope I prove myself,” Penny said. “I don’t want to be a disappointment.”

“You won’t be. You’ll see,” Ruby assured her.

The girls finished their food, and as they stepped out back onto campus, they found that night had fallen during their meal. Yang yawned. 

“I’m beat, and you know Price-Marsh will get us up early tomorrow. You guys ready for bed, too?”

“Not yet,” Weiss said. “I’m heading to the library. I wonder if I can still catch the Spellweaver while he’s on campus.”

“I don’t sleep, either,” Penny admitted. “I was thinking I would patrol the grounds while you all did, explore somewhat. I’ve been in a druidic compound at the edge of the wards for my whole life so far!”

“I’ll go with you,” Ruby offered. “I can show you around.”

“All right, but none of you wake me up when you get home,” Yang warned, stretching as she headed back to the barracks. 

“Or you’ll do what?” Ruby teased. “Noogie me?”

“Hey, burning knuckles’ll make that noogie really special,” Yang said with a laugh. “See you guys later.”

As they all went their separate ways, Ruby led Penny to the gates of the Core first, just to start a proper tour. Once they stopped in place, however, she turned to face Penny.

“Hey, Penny, are you doing okay?” she asked, shifting from foot to foot. “I know you’ve kind of been thrown in a weird situation, here. I want you to know that I’m committed to making sure you feel like a part of the team.”

“That’s...very generous, Ruby,” Penny said, shying away from Ruby’s gaze. “I’m not sure I feel ready for this, though. Group combat beside other sorcerers, I mean.”

“You didn’t fight with the Guardian?”

“Not in the way that is standard, or so she said.” Penny wrung her hands in front of her. “I understand that Core squads...link their signs to combine their powers, their wills. The Guardian can’t do that.”

“She can’t?” Penny said, raising her eyebrows. “But...that’s like...huh. I guess she wouldn’t need to since she has all four, but still…”

“It’s just something she’s never been able to do, she said. She thinks it could be the Progenitor’s name, or the fact that she’s linked to her druidic wife through blood-marriage, but it doesn’t work for her.”

“...We could practice!” Ruby exclaimed. “I’d be happy to be your first link.”

“Oh—Ruby, you needn’t—”

“No buts!” Ruby declared.

“I didn’t say but!”

“You just did! Here.” Ruby held out her hand. “Just take my hand.”

Penny looked carefully at Ruby’s hand, then laid her own inside of it. “Close your fingers,” Ruby ordered, and Penny did. Ruby closed her eyes. “Now, reach out with your primal sense. Can you feel me? Reaching for you?”

“...yes,” Penny managed, and Ruby felt warmth from beside her, the power residing within Penny’s body. “You are...very turbulent, Ruby.”

“That’s what everybody says,” Ruby said with a laugh. “Except Nora. She feels like a hurricane when I link with her. Now, feel your own power, your own wind, and try to harmonize it with mine.”

As Penny let down her natural guard, Ruby could feel it, the way her wind held itself within her clay shell. It wasn’t like Ruby’s at all, except it was — it reminded Ruby of when she was young and uncertain of herself, trying to clamp down her natural talent so she wouldn’t accidentally make windstorms everywhere she went. Air vibrating, trying to keep still, but not quite managing. The two of them breathed together for a moment, and their power found a middle ground between them, a cool summer breeze that would effortlessly lift a kite, and Ruby found herself floating an inch off the ground, Penny beside her. Something else flowed into her, something Ruby didn’t quite recognize — a sense of peace that didn’t usually come with a link. Perhaps Penny was bringing it to the table. It felt right.

“See?” Ruby said, squeezing Penny’s hand. “It’s no problem.”

“I’ve never lifted my whole body so easily,” Penny said, smiling at Ruby. 

“We multiply our power by combining it with another’s. That’s why the Core’s our best line of defense,” Ruby said proudly. “Now I can show you around in style. Can you feel where I want to take you?”

“Yes!” Penny sounded excited, now, not nervous at all. “This is sensational!”

“I think so too,” Ruby said with a dreamy sigh. “Linking with new people is always fun.”

They lifted into the air, and Ruby took her on a loop around the campus. She showed Penny the training grounds, the dueling arena, the central tower that housed the library and full-time instructors, explaining how the system of the sorcerer military worked to keep the Witchdom safe. Penny took it all in and asked Ruby quite a few clarifying questions, and it felt so nice, just to spend time with her, to make her feel like part of the team. As they set down inside one of the perimeter watchtowers at the end of the tour, Penny closed her eyes, still holding onto Ruby’s hand.

“Thank you, Ruby,” she said softly.

“For what?”

“For being so...nice to me. Nobody’s treated me like this before.” Penny brushed some of her poofy orange hair behind her ear. “...why have you been so nice?”

“Because...I feel like we have a lot more in common than a lot of people might think,” Ruby admitted, smiling at her gently. “People treated me weird when I was a kid, too. I didn’t quite fit in in our village. People said I was...odd. There were rumors going around that before I was born, my mom was still fighting in the Wilds while she was pregnant, and it made me strange. It didn’t help that I was trying to be a boy at first, either.” Ruby looked away, remembering how alone she’d felt until she came to the Core. “After I lost my mom and Yang started her pre-Core training, I wasn’t sure what my place was, either. I was always interested in primal magic, so my sign showing up right after my transition ritual was a huge break for me. It was like, telling me, I was destined to be here, to be me. Price-Marsh signed me up on Yang’s good word, and, I think, ‘cuz my mom disappeared under her command in the Wilds.”

“I’m sorry people treated you that way,” Penny said, taking Ruby’s other hand. “You seem like a really good person. I...I think I’ll be happy, with you leading my squad.”

“I think I’ll be happy with you in my squad,” Ruby replied, smiling. “You still wanna wander the grounds? I’m getting sleepy.”

“I...could go back to your room. Would it be all right if I took Blake’s old bed?”

“Actually, Yang’s been sleeping there since she was taken.” Ruby cleared her throat. “They...they were very close. You can take her old bunk. You said you don’t sleep, though, right?”

“I can at least lie down quietly and think,” Penny said. “And I...don’t actually want to meet any more strangers today.”

“All right. Fly there?”

“Absolutely!”

They took off from the watchtower and landed in front of the barracks. They kept holding hands all the way to Rose Squad’s room. It just felt right. Ruby paused before she opened the door, turning to face Penny.

“Hey, Penny,” she said quietly.

“What?”

Ruby embraced her.

“Welcome to Rose Squad.”

* * *

“Nervous, Penny?” Ruby asked as they watched Weiss draw runes into the circular stone pad at the center of the room. 

“Not at all! I’m very excited to see what it’s like to be teleported!” Penny replied, bouncing on her heels. Ruby had to stop herself from unconsciously imitating her — she hadn’t fought beside another aeromancer since the Taurus fiasco, and this would be much less scary. 

“What sort of training did you do, anyway?” Weiss asked, peering at Penny. “Live training, right?”

“Yes! I was taken to the edge of the Wilds and observed by the Guardian. They sent me after vampires, werewolves, kelpies, mossmen...it was very educational!”

“Any harpies? Other avian forms?” Yang inquired. “‘Cuz we’re going to the Windswept Plains, so…”

Penny frowned. “I’m afraid not. All the corruptions I fought were based in the Marshlands. A few of the vampires had progressed to direbat form, though...”

“She’ll figure it out!” Ruby insisted. “She’s literally made for it.”

“Yes! I am combat-ready!” Penny pumped her fists, making Ruby giggle.

“Can you fly? Ruby can fly and I was always crazy jealous of that,” Yang said. 

“I can, but I am...somewhat heavy,” Penny admitted. “It takes more concentration than an average aeromancer, unless I am linked with another. I found that using air to propel myself and enhance my physical attacks was quite effective.”

“We’re gonna have to show you the flametwister,” Yang said with a grin. “With two of you we could burn up whole nests.”

“Finished!” Weiss announced, standing up and brushing the chalk off her front. “Watch your step, don’t mess up my lines.”

“We know, Weiss, we’ve only done this a hundred times,” Yang said with a roll of her eyes, but Ruby took Penny’s hand as they approached. Penny stared down at her feet as they stepped into the four squares of chalk in the center of the circle, her feet moving very deliberately as she took her place. They all linked hands to form their own square, Ruby holding onto both Penny and Weiss at one corner, across from her sister. 

Weiss closed her eyes and repeated the incantation, the smooth syllables of the divine tongue rolling past her lips as naturally as they’d always done. The chalk dust flew into the air and whirled around them, starting to sparkle pink and blue, Penny audibly gasping at the sight. Ruby shut her eyes as Weiss approached the final stanza, checking to make sure that Penny had done the same first. 

Then, the lurch — the sense of free-falling — the sound of Penny’s gasp — and then the drop, her feet suddenly rooted to the spot. She opened her eyes and waited for the sensation of heaviness to lift from her, looking around at the walls of the tent she found herself in, but Penny had already jumped up from her spot and put her hands on Weiss’ shoulders.

“That was incredible! You didn’t even use a spellbook!” she exclaimed. 

“I, uh, oh, yeah,” Weiss said, shrinking back somewhat. “I..used to cast a lot of spells for my family. They made me, actually. After enough of it...you sort of start to understand the language. A little. Enough to remember rituals easier.”

“Sensational! You must tell me all about spellcasting. I haven’t tried it yet!”

“...sure, Penny. When we have time.” Weiss cleared her throat. “This isn’t the pad I thought I was sending us to, though? This isn’t Southrest Base.”

“Yeah…” Ruby stepped off the pad, peering at the tent around her again, kicking at the dusty ground beneath her feet. “They must’ve gotten pretty far since we were last out here.”

The flap to the tent opened and admitted an older woman with honey-colored hair, clad in the simple brown robes of a druid. “You must be Rose Squad,” she said with a slight bow. “I’m told my daughter sent you here to help with the expansion effort, and that you have a special member.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Penny said, jumping off of Weiss and down in front of the druid. “Penny Polendina, golem, at your service!”

“It’s nice to meet you, Penny,” the druid said, smiling and gently shaking her hand. “I am Elder Kate. I’m here with a small druidic division that needs your help with a very special project.”

“What’s so special about it?” Yang grumbled. “Just more monster-hunting, right?”

“Not quite,” Kate said with a mischievous smile. “But, first, your names?”

“I’m Ruby Rose, and you’re the Commander’s other mom? Wow!” Ruby babbled, shaking Kate’s hand vigorously. “It’s awesome to meet you!”

“Likewise.”

“The one who teleported us here is Weiss, and that’s Yang, my sister,” Ruby continued. “How far south are we? We must’ve gotten pretty far to justify moving that pad…”

“Come outside and see,” Kate offered, stepping out and holding the flap for Ruby. As she walked into the bright, harsh sun of the Windswept Plains, she gasped at what she saw looming in front of the camp.

An enormous ribcage confronted her, bright white in the blazing light, the tips of the bones so far up that she had to crane her neck to see them. Harpies and larger, darker winged figures circled them, crawled into and out of holes in them. Despite the audible howl of the wind, the air around her was still. In the time Rose Squad had been on break, The Warded Witchdom had at last reached the hollow bones of the titan Aeon, source of the corruption of the Plains. 

The other members of her squad filed out, each gasping in turn as they bore witness to the sight. “How did the wards hold this far?” Weiss asked Kate. “I thought we were still just hoping for a ten-mile containment zone around any bones at best.”

“That was Chloe’s old plan,” Kate said with an affectionate sigh. “The best we had at the time. But my wife often just thinks in terms of brute force, what we have available, not...innovation. A combination of Witchdom warding and traditional druidic protection stones have resulted in much stronger protections than ever before. We tried to push them out further, but this is as close as we’ve gotten...for now. The rest of our Core teams are resting, it’s been a long push, and we’ve effectively trapped most of the corruptions in the area inside this ribcage.”

“So you what do you need us to do?” Ruby asked. 

“I plan to turn these bones into protection stones — purify the remains and perhaps stop the corruption at its source here. But in order to do that, we need to have the corruptions cleared out first. Charms or not, they’ll attack us if we try to perform our rituals directly on Aeon’s remains. They’re desperate, and hungry, and strangely, more organized since we stopped here. I need you as an advance squad to scout and see if you can find a wyvern, or another ancient corruption that may be smart enough to guide their actions.”

“And kill it?” Yang suggested.

“Try not to engage it in combat,” Kate warned. “We’ll need a few more days of establishing supply lines and delivery of materials if we want to have all our Core squads ready to back you up in such a battle, and we aren’t quite ready for the ritual regardless. But intelligence is important, and with the corruption so potent here, having Penny with you will be essential. Many of us started to change on the way here, even with double-charms and vampire bloom teas.”

“How’s Arc Squad doing?” Ruby asked.

“Ah, yes, they’re your friends, aren’t they?” Kate asked with a smile. “They are well, but all of them have been afflicted to some degree. Nora seems happy about her pointed ears, but Jaune’s not a fan of the feathers growing in his hair. He says they’re itchy. You can visit them tonight after your mission, of course.”

“Can’t wait to fight with Pyrrha again,” Yang said, slamming her fists together. “Just us two could burn those bones down to ash.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Kate said with a smile. “Come with me. We’ll get you outfitted and take you to the insertion point.”

As they walked, Ruby and Penny both marveled at the giant army camp they found themselves in. As Kate said, there were many people with signs of mild corruption exposure; patches of feathers, a fang here or there, claws growing from places where nails once were. Druids were everywhere, more than Ruby had ever seen in one place before. Usually they kept to their own compounds, but apparently Kate had brought most of her tribe out to help the expansion effort. Kate led them to the edge, where a pair of druids underneath an overhang were washing their hands of blood in a small basin, surrounded by closed wooden cases.

“Could you retrieve Rose Squad’s equipment, please?” Kate asked them. They nodded, and as they removed their hands from the basin Ruby could see scores of small scars dotting their wrists like ladders — how much blood had they been giving to Fortan, to ensure this expedition’s safety? She shuddered at the thought. Druids were a tough bunch.

Each of the druids retrieved a case from the pile and set them out on the table before them, opening them to reveal eight pairs of hinged metal bracers with glowing blue-white crosses etched into each one. “I made these myself,” Kate informed them as each member of Rose Squad took the armor and started to strap them to their wrists. “I suppose Penny doesn’t need them, but they’ll serve well as backups in case anything happens. Gods know we’ve lost or smashed enough charms over the past few weeks.”

“I will happily donate them if anything happens,” Penny assured her, holding her wrist up to her eye level. “Excellent craftsmanship, Elder Kate!”

“That’s very kind of you to say,” Kate said with a laugh. “Is everything fitting well? Good. This way.”

She led them past the supply tent, and as they approached the edge of the faint shimmering that marked the borders of the wards, Ruby could feel it. The hunger of the Wilds, calling to her. All sorcerers felt it, but never this strongly before — she could even hear something, like a distant eagle’s call. Before them loomed a broken rib, the bottom cracked open to reveal the hollow interior, etched with overlapping text that she couldn’t read at this distance. She knew the stories, told by sorcerers swept out here by war long ago; those trapped in the twisting winds of the Plains would seek shelter here, and as the corruption spread through them, they’d record their degrading thoughts on the inside of Aeon’s bones, scratching their growing claws dull.

“Woah,” Yang murmured as Kate stopped at the very edge. 

“Yeah, I feel it too,” Weiss said softly.

“The rib should provide enough of a stopgap to prevent you from being swarmed,” Kate told them. “The tip is broken off at the top. Your aeromancers can fly to the top and scout from there while Yang and Weiss hold down the base. We’ll be able to back you up if you retreat to there when there’s trouble.”

“I like how you say _when_ and not _if_ ,” Yang remarked. “‘Least you’re honest about it.”

Kate laughed. “I’m told it’s a skill. There’s no doubt they’ll take notice and attack sooner or later. We just need to make sure you’ll have backup when you do.”

Yang let out a sigh. “All right. Well, Ruby and Penny, you’re first up, I guess.”

“Right,” Ruby said, squaring her shoulders and holding her head high. “Penny, with me.”

Penny nodded firmly and copied her stance, and together they took their first step over the line between safety and danger. Ruby was grateful for her charms as soon as the wind started to hit her, whipping her hair around her face, dust caking on her cheek. She flared her fingers out at her sides and projected a small whirlwind around herself, shielding her from the storm.

“This is unpleasant,” Penny remarked as they headed across the stretch of bare earth towards the break in the rib. 

“I’d call that accurate,” Ruby said through grit teeth. “Think you can fly in this weather?”

“I can, but I’ll have to concentrate most of my energy on it,” Penny admitted. “I won’t be able to fight and fly at the same time, not if I’m alone.” 

“Good thing you’ve got me. We’ll work with that.” They got inside the bone without further incident, though the cries of harpies in the distance rattled her nerves. They walked as far up the curve of the rib as they could manage before it became too steep, joined shortly by Yang and Weiss. Yang held up a small candle of flame, squinting at the writing.

“Do you think this was ever legible?” she asked quietly.

“To whoever wrote it, it probably was. At the time,” Weiss answered with a gulp. “And we thought this would be routine.”

“You guys ready?” Yang asked as Ruby stared up into the dark gloom of the rib, a thin point of light far above the only sign that there was an exit up there.

“Yeah. Easy,” Ruby said, taking Penny’s hand and feeling the power of her magic flow into her, her own flowing out. It was warmer than she expected. “Penny, can you feel the link?”

“Affirmative,” Penny replied, squeezing Ruby’s hand. 

“Let’s fly.”

With a powerful gust, the two of them jetted up the curve, the glow of their bracers lighting the writings as they flew. They emerged into the sunlight a few moments later, hovering above the tip of the rib, able now to see scattered vertebrae half-buried in the plains below the cage. A reverberation rattled through the air as Ruby scanned the horizon, noting mostly harpies and similar sized creatures, nothing that could be commanding the forces of the Wilds. 

“Let’s see if we can get an angle on any of the vertebrae,” Ruby suggested. “Something could be hiding in one of those.”

“I have your back,” Penny affirmed. 

There was something peaceful about this, using their combined gifts to soar over this ruined landscape. At least for now, none of the circling creatures seemed to be taking notice of them. Ruby let herself work by instinct, falling into a lull, until she felt a tug on the end of her arm and stopped in mid-air, floating back towards Penny.

“There’s something down there,” Penny said, pointing to a vertebra near the end of the ribcage — though Ruby found herself distracted for a moment as she looked ahead, noticing there was no skull in sight. Maybe it had been scattered during the war. Penny asking “Do you feel it?” brought her back to their mission.

Ruby closed her eyes and focused her senses, and indeed felt it. Sick, hungry, angry, desperate, washing over her uncontrollably as soon as she touched it with her mind. The same concentrated corruption she had felt just before Adam had attacked. She opened her eyes and pulled herself back from the sensation with a gasp.

“Should we investigate it? Find out what it is?” Penny asked, but the air turned sour around them. Despite the warmth of her bracers, Ruby sensed a chill.

“We need to turn back,” Ruby said firmly. “We need backup. Whatever’s down there, it’s—watch out!” she cried, pulling Penny close to her as a harpy charged at them, beak snapping on the exact spot where Penny’s head had just been. It let out a hiss and turned back towards them, rearing back for another go until suddenly Penny’s hand detached from her body and flew out, slamming directly into its face.

Its beak shattered into bloody pieces, it fell out of the sky, and Penny’s hand returned to her. For a moment, it was visibly made of clay, but as soon as it reconnected with her body, it became skin again.

“That was _extremely_ cool, Penny, but let’s go,” Ruby said, tugging on her hand and moving back towards home base. Penny turned to match her movement, but as soon as they started moving, a piercing screech echoed across the Plains, and she heard the sound of wingbeats closing in on them.

“Go!” Ruby cried, sparing a glance over her shoulder as she spotted exactly what she had feared. A wyvern, its wingspan dwarfing the two of them combined, rose into the air from the vertebra and bore down upon them, mouth opening wide as it approached. Despite Penny and Ruby’s best effort, it gained, and then Ruby felt something worse. A vortex, a pull, as the wyvern exercised its own powers over the air, stealing her momentum away, her hand slipping out of Penny’s and breaking the link.

“Ruby!” Penny called, grasping desperately at nothing as she turned in mid-air, falling away from Ruby’s sight, now, dropping fast to the ground as the harpies started to swarm out of the bones surrounding them. Ruby flew backwards and found herself inside the wyvern’s mouth, but before it shut she threw out one arm above her and another below, projecting gales in either direction to keep herself steady and prevent the thing from swallowing her whole. 

“Get help!” Ruby screamed as loudly as she could, though she could see no one at all, now. The wyvern thrashed its head back and forth and dislodged Ruby from its mouth, catching her in its talons as she fell. She could hear a crackling, smell burning flesh where the talons touched her bracers, and yet the wyvern held on tight to her regardless, Ruby’s arms and legs bound together by its size and strength.

Ruby begged herself to think. The whole point of being an aeromancer was being able to get _out_ of situations like this. But this was different. It wasn’t trying to kill her. Even as she squirmed and struggled within its grasp, the wyvern flew back down, towards the vertebra it had come from. From this angle, she could see the hole in its side where the wyvern must’ve been nesting, but it didn’t look like a natural break. It was like something had simply sliced the entire side clean off.

The wyvern suddenly released her, and Ruby wasn’t able to react in time to prevent herself from hitting the ground rolling. She coughed as she breathed in dust, rising to her knees to see where the wyvern had dumped her, if it intended to feed her to its children or its brood or its pack or _whatever—_

She looked up into the blackened eyes of Adam Taurus.

He held out a long, bright white sword, and when he sheathed it his irises lightened back to blue, the sclera still black, marking the corruption he’d taken into his soul when he chose to make the Wilds his home. The wyvern backed off from Ruby, settling down behind her, and she realized then that it hadn’t been the wyvern controlling the swarm at all, it hadn’t been what she or Penny had felt. It had been him, all along.

His horns had grown since last she had seen him, from the short, sharp things to curls flanking his head, pointing menacingly down at her as she lay there, frozen in front of his gaze. He knelt down to her level, a sneer on his lips.

“I thought that was you,” he said, smiling. “Darling, look what the cat dragged in.”

“Ruby, no,” rasped a familiar voice, and in her terror Ruby could only barely move her head to try and see where it was coming from. Behind Adam, chained to the wall with her hands and feet bound together, was a girl with long black hair, her clothes dusty and tattered, triangular ears growing out of her head, her eyes flashing in the darkness.

“Blake?” Ruby gasped. “You _monster—”_

Adam struck her across the face, and a wave of nausea ran through Ruby and drained the strength from her bones, counteracted a moment later by a burst of warmth from her bracers. Adam hissed, pulling his hand back as it crackled and smoked.

“Disgusting,” he seethed. Ruby scrambled to her feet and started to back away, only to bump into the wyvern’s back, making it hiss. Wind gathered uncontrollably around Ruby, her focus and training leaving her as images of that day flashed across her vision, Adam’s sword cleaving Yang’s arm from her body, the rushing horde of werewolves that separated the team from each other, the terror in Blake’s eyes as Adam lifted her over his shoulder.

“How...can you be here?” Ruby asked, her stomach dropping into her feet as Adam stood up and cracked his neck. “Y-you’re northern. That’s where you live.”

“Things are changing in the Wilds, sweetheart,” Adam replied, the dark veins on his face pulsing with a strange green light. “Did you witches and druids — you slaves to intangible, petty gods — did you really think you could take over our world without us fighting back? A new queen has risen, and we are united at last against you. I was chosen to defend this sacred place, and given the knowledge to do it, to direct my family.”

“Sacred?” Ruby exclaimed. “It’s turned you into a monster!”

“You do love that word. Both of you,” Adam said, tossing a glance at Blake. “That’s what she was afraid of, you know. Why she left my side, even as the alliance among our people finally started to take hold. She didn’t want to become a _monster._ I took her here to show her what that would really mean. It’s sustaining her. It feeds her, as it feeds all of us. She hasn’t been fed since she arrived, and yet, she still lives, doesn’t she?”

“Ruby, _run,_ ” Blake called weakly, and as she spoke Ruby could see the fangs in her mouth. “Please.”

“Where can she go?” Adam asked with a laugh. “You can mobilize your pathetic excuses for sorcerers, but they won’t save you. My army is already fighting back. I can feel them now.”

“Why are you doing this?” Ruby asked, tears forming in her eyes. “Why do you hate us so much?”

“What you people call corruption is the essence of life itself. It’s power, manifest,” Adam argued. “Ever since the first druids made contact with the misbegotten children of the titans, you’ve been fighting back against it, and for what? So you can struggle to bring back a world none of you can even remember? So you can deny the last gift of the true creators of this world? You’ve spent centuries pushing us out of our homes to reclaim your ‘pure world’. We will not stand for it. Not any longer.”

Ruby licked her lips, her heart pounding in her ears. He liked to talk. That was good. If she could just keep him talking, just hold on, she knew Yang and Weiss would come. Penny had to have made it back. She had to.

“S—so Blake’s from your clan?” Ruby asked. 

Adam laughed at her. “She never even told you? _Typical._ She always was a coward. I suppose that’s why the titans are turning her into a werecat now, isn’t it, my dear?” he asked, looking over his shoulder. “So you can hide and strike from shadows. You’ll be more useful to us that way.”

He turned back to Ruby. “I’m going to make her suffer, like I did when she _abandoned_ me for your so-called team. But you’re alone now, aren’t you? Where are the people I saw in her memories, where’s the one she _loved_ so much?”

A chill struck Ruby’s heart. How much power _did_ he have? How much did he know? He didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve to know Blake, to treat her like his property. Fear turned to anger in her chest, and the directionless wind that had been flowing around her stilled. 

“You think you’re so strong,” she growled, raising her arms up and crossing them across her chest, gathering air behind her, ready to launch. “But a little druid’s blood will show you what you _really_ are.”

Adam reached into his coat and withdrew a small glass vial. “We’ll see,” he said, shaking it back and forth, making it let out an angry buzz and a bright blue glow. Ruby knew what that was. _Punisher._

He reared back to throw it, and just as Ruby changed her stance to get ready to deflect it, the wyvern rose to its feet behind her and hissed at something, and then—

Ruby was knocked off her feet and splattered with blood and bone, a red-hot streak blowing past her face and intercepting the vial as it flew towards her. It smashed against the streak and created a flare of light, the runes in Ruby’s bracers flickering but not going out. 

Viscera dripped from Penny, standing firm before Adam as the wyvern’s body slumped to the ground, its head completely blown apart by Penny’s launch. Yang landed beside Ruby, slamming a flaming fist into the ground, while Weiss rode in on a wave of ice and helped Ruby to her feet.

The bracers dropped off of Penny’s wrists in pieces, but still she stood, clay body cooling from whatever extra power Yang had given her to enter in such a dramatic fashion.

“Blake!” Yang cried, hair bursting into flame. “You son of a bitch!”

Adam drew his sword and started to point, but Penny darted forward and caught it mid-swing, grunting with effort as she held her position. But the sword’s corruption could not take root in her, the green energy glowing bright on the blade but unable to spread into her hands. Yang blasted fire out behind her and weaved around Adam as he struggled with Penny, cleaving Blake’s chains in half with a precise burning strike. 

“Penny, get back!” Yang called, holding onto Blake’s hand. Penny blew herself backward with a gust of wind, yanking Adam’s sword out of his hands by the blade, and just as Adam turned to see what they were doing, the ground beneath him liquefied.

He sank to his waist as Blake stared him down, fangs bared. The earth he was caught in started to crackle, and he screamed in pain, thrashing against the quicksand as his clothes went up in flames, more punishers popping inside his coat with flashes of blue. But even as he thrashed, he started to change, bright red scales breaking out across his body, his horns lengthening, jaw elongating. His skin sounded like tearing paper as wings sprouted from his back, and with a _crack_ the draconic upper half of his body separated from the lower half and rose into the air — until Weiss opened her waterskin. She drew out its contents into the air with her hands and froze them into spears of ice, and before the remains of Adam Taurus could pose any further threat, they flew and pierced straight through him. 

The body fell to the ground, bleeding from a dozen holes, still changing even as it died, claws growing out from the hands until it took its last breath and lay still. Ruby became dimly aware of the sounds of battle outside, but for a moment, the entire team stood motionless.

“Fall back to the wards!” Ruby ordered, shaking herself out of the moment. “Everyone link up!”

Each member of the squad grasped hands with another, Penny and Ruby on opposite sides of the line, and together they propelled the team out of the vertebra and into the battle. Sorcerers and monsters clashed all around them, but the harpies and gryphons were starting to break off, fleeing when they took fireballs to the chest or icicles to the wing. Rose Squad skated across the plains, rushing towards the camp as fast as they could, and as soon as they passed the ward lines their strength broke, and Ruby fell to her knees on the dirt, panting heavily, wanting to throw up, not helped by the sound of Blake doing just that a few feet from her, black ooze splattering the dirt.

She heard, vaguely, Jaune calling out a retreat order. She focused on breathing, keeping herself steady while staring at the ground. It was so much. So much, so fast. Around her, people were trying to speak to her, trying to understand what happened, but all she could do was try to keep breathing.

“Ruby.” Penny’s voice broke through the noise, and she felt those clay hands grasp her own. “Breathe.”

And she did.

Air rushed into her lungs, and she held it for a moment, then let it go. She looked up into Penny’s green eyes, and let Penny lift her to her feet.

“Breathe,” Penny said again, and Ruby did.

* * *

Ruby stared into the fire burning in the center of the camp, sitting cross-legged at the edge of the circle. Around her, preparations were being made, as they always were. Druids shed their blood into vessels for storage, preparing for the largest and most important ritual in the history of their own kind. Sorcerers drank and laughed and sang about a battle well-won, a blow struck to the enemy that might not ever have an equal. Witches sat with their covens and spoke excitedly about new spells coming in from Citadel that they might use to help the druids recover their strength.

Rose Squad was not in such spirits. Blake and Yang sat quietly together, their hands linked, Yang running her fingers through Blake’s hair as the two of them stared past the fire, into something only they could see. Weiss was preparing yet another batch of tea, drawing a ritual circle around the kettle with a stick in the dirt. It kept her busy. That was enough for Ruby. She knew it was helping her...process. Weiss could only show concern and care with gestures like that, sometimes. She always made sure Ruby’s tea was light and sweet.

Ruby started when she saw Penny emerge from the Elder’s tent, across the fire from her. She wore a druid’s robe, now; Ruby supposed that an aquamancer had had to hose her off to get all the wyvern off of her. Penny floated herself over the flames and settled down beside Ruby.

“I made my report,” she said softly. “They’re pleased with what we’ve done.”

Ruby nodded numbly. “And...the news?”

“The Magister said that her wife, the Oracle, is going to ask Fate about this...warlock queen,” Penny said, shifting back and forth. “They’re taking it seriously. They told me so.”

“I’m glad,” Ruby said, knowing she didn’t sound like it. But it was good. That they knew now, what they were up against.

Penny reached down and gently laid her hand over Ruby’s, and as the link established, Ruby breathed again. She looked into Penny’s eyes, and Penny quickly took her hand back, wincing.

“I—I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I shouldn’t — I know, I sometimes, have, difficulty. With people. The Guardian thought it was funny, but—”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Ruby promised. “I...like it. It’s strange, but…”

“I like it too,” Penny admitted. “I wasn’t sure you did.”

“I link up with my teammates all the time,” Ruby said softly. “And I’ve linked with Nora, once or twice, so it’s not an aeromancer thing. But with you it feels...different, now.”

Penny cautiously laid her hand over Ruby’s again, and Ruby sighed gratefully. It reminded her of how it felt when Penny came in like a heroine and put herself between Ruby and danger. When Penny had brought her out of a panic attack. All of that, just hours ago.

“I hope that I can stay with you,” Penny said, squeezing Ruby’s hand, and Ruby felt her longing. “Now that you have your fourth teammate back, I mean.” 

“Me too,” Ruby admitted. “I’d...I’d really like to get to know you better. This has been so much, so fast, and...I don’t want to say goodbye when it feels like we just met.”

Penny nodded. “I feel the same way.” 

Ruby looked into her eyes again, and felt her heart pumping madly. The last few months had taught her how fast life could change. How quickly someone you care about could disappear. How soon you can become attached to someone. 

She was willing, at this point, to take a little risk.

“Penny?” she asked.

“Yes, Ruby?”

“Have you ever been kissed before?”

“No.”

“I’ve never kissed anyone before.”

“I...see.”

“Would you like it if I kissed you?”

Ruby felt a surge through her fingertips, and Penny’s eyes opened wide. “I...wouldn’t know. Unless you tried it.”

Ruby did.

And though Penny tasted of earth, Ruby felt lighter than air.


End file.
